~ serial lives: 22 years of writings & musings

column 06/2017

The Hawthorne Street Bridge and the Morrison Street Bridge are two of several bridges that connect the city of Portland as it spans the Willamette River. Located near the east side entry of these two bridges, the Grand Avenue corridor, are two soaring examples of architectural sculptures.

The Inversion: Plus Minus project, by the Seattle—based organization Lead Pencil Studio, features skeletal sculptural frames that illustrate urban aesthetics and that is quite devoid of an functionality. The structures simultaneouslyconnote form, rigid form, and negative space or free space/void.

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Two outdoor experimental architectural installations by the Seattle-based Lead Pencil Studio:

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Architecture, by definition, concerns the creation and execution of interior and exterior spaces/environments that are primarily for human habitation, work, and other activities. This is accomplished in a shifting cooperative process that emphasize both functional and artistic/creative interests. Architectural Art sculptures or outdoor artistic structures are essentially non-functional and primarily artistic creations.

Architectural sculptures have taken on a variety of forms around the country in numerous urban settings. The aforementioned Inversion project takes on a skeletal, silhouetted, or scaffold-type format. Another format can appear as extensions or appendages to a primary building site. Towers are good examples of architectural artistic extensions or appendages. The Twin Towers of the Convention Center in downtown Portland, are representative.

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Another form of architectural extensions are pavilions, colonnades, and/or covered promenades. These artistic appendages provide some degree of functionality as coverings or passageways but it can be strongly creative in its presentation. Such as the example below, the Pacific Science Center arches in Seattle: